Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

 The late Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, whose solemn Requiem Mass will be celebrated tomorrow in St Peter's Square, had a rather interesting, almost controversial heraldic history.

The Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, of which His Holiness was previously Archbishop, bears on its shield a representation of the third century martyr, St Maurice:

As this photograph from Munich Cathedral shows, successive archbishops have incorporated St Maurice in their personal arms:

 On  his election as pope in 2005, Pope Benedict's arms were redesigned by Archbishop, later Cardinal, Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo. The new arms retained all three of the symbols from Benedict's arms as Archbishop: St Maurice;  the bear, a reference to St Corbinian who had tamed the bear to carry his bags after it had devoured the saint's horse, an allegory of the defeat of paganism perhaps; and the scallop shell, usually a symbol of pilgrimage but here also intended as a reference to St Augustine. He laid them out in a more striking manner however as Gules, chape ployé Or, with the scallop shell Or; the dexter chape with a moor's head Proper, crowned and collared Gules, the sinister chape a bear trippant  Proper, carrying a pack Gules belted Sable.

Rather controversially, the Pope dispensed with the triregno or triple crown with which papal arms have traditionally been ensigned, although no pope has actually been crowned since Pope Paul VI. The heraldic papal tiara is replaced by a mitre.

Here the plot thickens. In October 2010, Pope Benedict gave his usual blessing from the balcony of the papal palace with a new banner of his arms hanging from the rail. Consternation.

photo credit Dennis Jarvis

The papal tiara is back (in fact, as the Vatican garden's heraldic flowerbeds and the flag of the Swiss Guard showed, it had never wholly gone), St Maurice's crown has been simplified, the pack on the bear's back is now belted Argent and not Sable, while the scallop shell has been made into a much richer confection. 

It will be interesting to see tomorrow which version of Pope Benedict's arms they use.